Other parties involved:

* Patreon (already mentioned, money definitely enters the system through here)

* Sponsors (VPNs, CuriosityStream, Brilliant, etc.)

* Nebula (a premium subscription for a non-Google service)

* Merch companies

* Book sales

Google would love for you to think it's a three-way system and they're the one and only middle-man who can help you to fund creators you like, but it's completely and totally false. Pushing their monopolistic line as if it were the truth does nothing to help the creators, it only helps Google.